At The Feet Of Mothers by Adnan Mahmutovic
Joseph Schneider grows up in a Cherokee-Jewish family in the Smoky mountains of North Carolina. He dreams to be a cook on the biggest ship there is in the world but his attachment to his mother Rachel and his rootedness to the little mountain village keep him from moving on.
When his mother falls ill she reveals she stole him from a Palestinian girl Aliya in the 80s when she volunteered at a hospital in Gaza. Joseph refuses to know anything more about his biological mother, but later when Rachel dies, Joseph honors his promise to her and embarks on a painful pilgrimage to the holy land, a walk in the footsteps of his American mother and a search for Aliya.
About Adnan Mahmutovic:
Adnan Mahmutovic is a Swedish-Bosnian writer. He works at Stockholm University as a lecturer in literature and creative writing. His other major works include a novel Thinner than a Hair (2010), short story collection How to Fare Well and Stay Fair (2012), literary criticism Ways of Being Free (2012) and Future in Comics (2017), and creative writing pedagogy The Craft of Editing (2019).
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adnanmahmutovic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adnanmahmutovicpage/
Website: http://www.adnanmahmutovic.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mahmutovic.official/
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/30C7joe
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/30FHYti
Cinnamon Press: https://bit.ly/2DQ37Ig
Book Depository: https://bit.ly/2DFZswN
Waterstones: https://bit.ly/3gHnyWr
Review
I really enjoyed reading this novel. It was compelling, enticing and beautiful all at the same time. This was a tale of deciding who you are, running away from possibilities, but ultimately about a mother’s love for their child.
First thing I made going to point out how easy was it to just claim a child in Palestine at that period. Is this something that routinely happened over there? Is this a bit of history that I have missed?
Anyhow, I loved the sections which dealt with Joseph’s love for his mountain and family. This is where the true beauty was for me in this book. The domestic settings, the cooking sessions. How even knowing he was ‘stolen’ didn’t really encourage him to embrace that side of him. He was half Jewish and half Cherokee and that’s all that mattered. Until….on his mother’s death bed he makes a promise to her to go to the Middle East.
Now I’m not going to say anything spoiler like but I was struck by a certain meeting on a boat. I googled and realised that this was not just a random plot point but it actually happened. Here is a link to a Guardian article about it. Read it if you want. Otherwise just ignore it!
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/03/gaza-flotilla-attack-henning-mankell
I did find it refreshing that a book set in Israel/Palestine didn’t really come down on one side on the politics. It was more matter of fact. Joseph certainly didn’t care. He just wanted to find his biological mother. I did feel it was a bit too easy for him towards the end to find out information. I would have liked this to play out more.
This book was certainly an intriguing mixture of cultures and themes which had a lot of significance for the protagonist in this story. But for me it was about love between a mother and their son. A place to call home. It definitely was an interesting read.
